That Time A Past Cast Member Is In A Tony-Nominated Show...

Since 2000, I've done a few community theater shows...not as many as some, but definitely more than most. When you do a show, you get to know a lot of people, especially if the show requires a large cast and even more if the show is double cast.

For me, it's been one of the perks of being in shows--the friends you make.

Sometimes, if you're lucky, you get the opportunity to do more shows with your friends, and after spending almost every night with the same people for months at a time, those friendships build.

But the opposite of that is, you'll do a show with a person and that's it--either they move away, become disinterested in doing shows, or other responsibilities take precedent in their lives. Thanks to social media, even though you no longer see or talk to these people, you can keep up with what they're doing (as long as they post what they're doing...).

A show I did ten years ago this summer was one of my favorites, Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat. I know the show is done a lot--I've done it one more time since 2009--but it's a blast to do. One of the wives from our 2009 production finished the show, graduated from university, then moved to New York. Tonight, her show was nominated for several Tony Awards. 

Congratulations, Kalyn! Well done!

I remember Kalyn--but to be fair, she's difficult to forget. I remember her being a tremendous talent, singer, actor, but an especially fantastic dancer. At one point in the run, I said she ought to be on Broadway. She downplayed it, saying she had only been dancing for a few years, not the "dancing all my life" response we all think is a requirement for a Broadway performer. Maybe she was being humble, or she believed it--I'm not sure. Either way, it doesn't matter because she did make it. She's in a company, doing a show, and based on her social media posts, living her dream.

In the ten years since the curtain at Rodgers Memorial Theatre's production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat dropped for the final time, we've all taken different paths. But for one in our little theatre family, she's gone from a non-paid gig at a small community theater, to Broadway, and whether she believed it or not, my prediction came true.